Tennessee won the pre-game coin toss at Knoxville and that was about it for the thousands of Volunteer fans who came out to see their team prove they were not quitters, as a mouthy Florida Gator said they were a year ago.

Of course the Vols didn’t quit a year ago, or Saturday, though the Gators handled these latest Vols about as handily this time. The final was 30-6 for the Tim Tebow-led Gators, compared to 59-20 in Gainesville. This year, however, this Tennessee team could not have won if the game were still going on. This Vol club doesn’t seem to be as physical, nor as fast, and the new quarterback, well, he’s new, and he was hounded all of the nightmarish day by a Florida defensive line that hustled all afternoon.

TV announcer Gary Danielson kept reminding all that after being beaten soundly a year ago by Florida, the Vols turned it around for a fine season. Good.  Hope they can do it again and I hope Coach Phil Fulmer can too. He’s such a fine man, but he can’t beat the Gators.  Steve Spurrier beat him six times out of six, when Spurrier was the Florida coach (and might beat him again this year for South Carolina). And now, Urban Meyer has beaten Fulmer four times. 

This Tennessee team seems not to have the speed of those of the past on both sides of the ball, and boy, does the quarterback have a long way to go. Every now and then, Tennessee would show speed and muscle but not often enough.

And, where is there a better place to present a team to all that grand old Neyland Stadium will hold? So, it is now clear these Volunteers of Fulmer, such a friend of the Outback Bowl here, will get better and will be in a bowl game. The team is simply not what it has been.

They made too many errors against the Gators, who made too few. They don’t have a quarterback of the abilities and know-how of Tebow. Don’t have the team and individual speed of the Gators. If the Gators and Vols held a foot race among four of the fastest on each side, the Gators just might finish one-through four.

And, no, quarterback Tebow is surely not among them.

But, Tebow may be as tough as any Gator, though he’s not the kind to call any players on any team quitters, as a teammate did—but, count on it—won’t again. 

Notice that in the repeated showdown situations how the quarterback called his own number for the most difficult, the toughest situations, almost all the three and short situations, he’d go straight-ahead, or straight-ahead and just before the scrimmage line flip it over the line to a tight end?  He’s a weapon.

So are others. None is more of a threat each time he gets the ball than Brandon James, the punt returner that burned the Volunteers for a touchdown.

Okay, we have concluded this is a decent Tennessee team Philip Fulmer has but certainly a vulnerable one. We have concluded it will be a bowl team if its vast numbers of followers can stick with it to a bowl game in the sunshine, or, a fun city somewhere.

So how about the 3-0 Gators?

Not bad, not bad. Surely, they are now very much in the Southeastern Conference championship race and in the big bowl pool.

Bear Bryant used to say, “Awe shoot, you can get anybody ready to play Auburn, or Notre Dame, but, beat a big one (like Tennessee) and then try to get them ready at Mississippi State or Mississippi at Oxford, well, that ain’t as easy.”

The Gators are a bit better than some of us thought.

Tennessee at Tennessee before 95,000 is a load anytime.

But, looks like the Gators got more fast people than some of us thought, may have a bigger and better offensive line and a strong defensive front and secondary and a solid kicking game all around.

These Gators may be the best in a while. They are now off to that kind of start, with Tennessee a W.

Could be a fun time for the Gators… again.